1/30 Blackie - What do you think?

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Ele & Blackie (GA)

Ele & Blackie (GA)

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What a difference a day makes! After yesterday's 300's Blackie is giving us a normal curve today. Here's a recap from last night:
pmps 346 2.2
+3 331
+7 274
amps 280
+3 229
+5 119
+7.5 68

Do you think this was too steep a drop? I'm just wondering if yesterday's bad numbers were rebound and I maybe need to lower the dose. What do you think?
 
I am awful with dosing advice, and not very good at deciding what's rebound, so I don't think I am the person to give you advice on this one. All I can do is tell you that if it were me, with Blackie's recent high #s, I would probably give another dose of 2.2u. I am not saying this is the right thing to do, just what I would do. If that brings on another episode like last night, then I would say it was probably rebound.
 
If it were me, I would probably try going to 2.1u.

If I did the math right, I'm calculating a 75% drop from the 280 to the 68. While I'm not sure if the overall drop is steep enough (since the PS isn't bad) to cause rebound, with Bix I was happiest with a % in the 50 - 60 range. I calculated it from the PS, so if this was 75% and say you next get a PS of 180 and want a target nadir of 80 (leaving a little room for error there), then you want a drop more around 55%. So to me that suggests to try a lower dose.

Also I would look at zoom rates towards the end of the cycle. I don't have time to study his SS right now as I'm headed out the door (or would be if I'd stop typing LOL!!!), but looking at the #s you posted, on the 1st cycle you have only a 20% drop, with hanging #s towards the end, followed by a 75% drop. So that suggests to me that when you are getting good overlap the drop is too steep (e.g. for a 180 PS that could give you a 45 nadir), but when the overlap isn't good, the drop is not enough.

Soooo, if you got say a +11 and a +12 tonight and compared them, if he's not rising much, I would reduce the dose, probably down to 2.1u on a higher PS, or 2 even on a lower PS (maybe under 200? just guessing, I haven't done the math on that angle of it).

I know not everyone likes the 0.1s :-D but when I finally got Bix regulated and then started getting lower PS, I found that just easing the dose down like that in tiny increments worked extremely well. I kept the pressure on by not lowering as much as even 0.2u, but still backed things down when the nadirs or PSs were at the bottom end of what I felt comfortable with. With Blackie, my worry would be that if you go back as far as 2.0 he'll zoom back up like he has before when you've lowered the dose, but I also do think that 2.2 is a bit steep and while on the one hand that's working to bring his #s down, it seems a little risky to me on the lower PSs (in the sense that it could be triggering rebound).

That's probably more analysis than you wanted, I'm a calculator gal ;-) & I have been totally wrong before on Blackie's #s, but that's my 2c.
 
Another way to look at it Ele (and this probably won't work with your schedule, but just to throw it out), is to try to catch him at 150 and shoot. To some extent with Bix I tried to aim very specifically for a PS in the 150 - 180 range, and a nadir around 80 - 90 (or I'd say 50 - 60 on your meter, I was using a cat meter at the time). Thankfully he came around to that on BID, but I snuck in things like shooting at +11 if he was at 150 rather than waiting, etc. Once he got in that pattern (and I can't say Blackie will of course, ECID, and Blackie has always thrown more curve balls that Mr. Bix seemed to), I found it a lot easier to fine-tune the dose. If I got a PS as high as 200 I'd raise the dose back up a bit, if the PS was only 120 I'd lower a bit, and similarly on the nadirs - if the nadir was 100 I'd raise a bit, at the low end, I'd lower a hair for safety margin.

Of course ECID, just sharing what worked for me. That stretch for Bix was from July 20 for a few weeks, in case it's any help to you.

And all that said, YOU know Blackie's data and patterns a lot better than I do, so I would trust your judgement as to what to do. :-D
 
+8 was 70, so he's hanging a little bit. And I even fed him after the +7.

Thanks for all the input. I really appreciate that you are "calculating", Joanna. :thumbup I calculated the 75% too and thought the same thing - too steep. And he could have been higher than 280 after the shot, so it could have been even more steep. I will make sure and get a +11 today because I wouldn't be surprised if Blackie went low tonight. So I just might try the .1 decrease. Although you are right, I'm not fond of that between the lines stuff.

What makes it harder to decide is that Blackie has become the King of Curve Balls. :? I never knew you did the 150 thing. I don't know if I could do that and probably not on a regular basis. But maybe it would help with those curve balls??

Thanks again. I'll keep posting his numbers.
 
+9.5 78
Terri, I fed him with the +7.5 and the +8.5. So he might have gone a little lower without that food. It still looks like he'll be low at pmps, so we'll see.
 
I shot a few times at +10 or +11 if Buzz was already high. I didn't do it as a plan, really, more of a gut thing, I guess. Joanna's way sounds much more regimented and sound. :)
 
Pmps was 179, so Blackie went up 100 pts in 2.5 hours. We stuck with the 2.2 unit dose and I'll check him at +2. Since he has a history of being higher in the morning, I thought the 2.2 would still be good. Thanks for everyone's input. I'm going to have to reread some of these posts.
 
Ele & Blackie said:
I never knew you did the 150 thing. I don't know if I could do that and probably not on a regular basis.
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Well when I tried it totally disregarding 12/12 it was a royal disaster, so I'm not exactly a cheerleader for that approach, though I think it's great for anyone who can succeed with it. I found the variances in overlap too confusing, and my timidity to shoot enough insulin was mostly what won out. Mostly, I think I totally lucked out that once I did the systematic 12/12 dose increase thing, Bix seemed to naturally fall into a pattern of PSs around 150 and nadirs in non-diabetic #s, and so that made it easy for me to just keep 150/high DDs as my target, and up or lower the dose a hair when he missed the target.

Sarah and Buzz said:
Joanna's way sounds much more regimented and sound. :)
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Lol - grass is always greener I guess. ;-) It was probably more haphazard and panicked than anything else (& sheer dumb luck when it worked!!!), and I really lucked out that Bix was never much of a curve-baller. But I'll still take the credit, hehe. :-D
 
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